Firstly, apologies for the length of time between posts! Let me make it up to you with a chocolate brownie recipe. This one is good to use up the chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies left lying around, that you’d like to get rid of but don’t want to throw out.

It’s sometimes difficult to find a brownie recipe that works every time and allows you to vary it with raspberries, or chocolate chips, or nuts. Four batches were required in the space of three days (thanks to school bake sales, end of term class parties and Dear Husband) and this recipe worked every time. The recipe below has half the sugar of the original recipes I saw, and uses raw cacao. For school I did not use any walnuts, but the batch for Dear Husband had the works- dark and white chocolate chips and walnuts. These brownies take little time to make and are a hit. If you like them sweeter add more sugar or use cocoa instead of cacao.

I hope you are loving easy food

CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

150g butter (I used unsalted)

150g caster sugar (you could try raw sugar and give the sugar a blitz to make the grains smaller)

90g raw cacao (I have this in the pantry, but you could use normal baking cocoa)

1tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs

85g plain flour

100g white chocolate chips

100g dark chocolate chips (you could alternatively use whatever Easter eggs are left over)

50g walnuts, crushed (if you want to use them)

Preheat the oven to 160degrees Celsius and line a 20cm square baking tine with baking paper

Place the sugar, butter and cacao into the thermomix for 3 minutes, speed 2, 70 degrees, to melt. You could do this step in a saucepan if you do not have a thermomix, but make sure you don’t boil the mixture

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix for 10 seconds, speed 3. If you don’t have a thermomix take the saucepan off the heat and add the ingredients,once mixed add to another bowl

Add the flour to the thermomix bowl (or bowl of chocolate mixture) and mix for 15 seconds on speed 4. Scrape down the sides and mix for another 10 seconds if needed

Add the chocolate chips (white and dark) and nuts (if using) and mix on reverse for 5 seconds on speed 4. If doing it in a bowl mix together with a spoon

Pour mixture in to the prepared baking tin and bake for 35 minutes. You want there to be a slight wobble in the middle when it’s finished

Once cooled cut in to squares and enjoy



Before my family and I go away on holiday I try to empty the fridge from things that will spoil while we are away. I also try to consider using these ingredients in something healthy as holidays in our family tend to be a time of indulgences and relaxed dietary rules. So last week with the pomegranate and parsley in my fridge a made a beautiful salad that looked like rubies and emeralds in desert sand. 

I served the salad for dinner, with some parchment baked fish and another salad of greens. It is quite substantial on its own, though, and for lunch could be had with some crusty bread, halloumi, tuna or a boiled egg. 

I encourage you to try different ingredients in salads. Add some crunch with nuts, some creaminess with feta or some sweetness with dried fruit.

I hope you are loving easy food

Jewel Salad

1 pomegranate, pith removed and only seeds remaining (I have no clever tricks here. I use my hands and break the pomegranate in to portions and get the seeds out)

1 cup quinoa, cooked (I used white)

1/2 cup roasted hazelnuts, roughly crushed

1 bunch of parsley, chopped

Salad dressing (mixture of lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, salt and olive oil)

Cook the quinoa until the balls have released their tail. Rinse to cool under cold water. Dress the quinoa with the dressing and put in to a salad bowl

Add the hazelnuts, parsley and pomegranate to the bowl with the dressed quinoa, and toss together

Keep in the fridge until ready to serve

At the moment, twice a week my oldest Miss L does horse riding. What this means is that twice a week we all come home dirty, dusty, hungry, and at this time of year, cold. The best way I have found to get around ordering takeout or going somewhere to eat on the way home is to slow cook something that will com while we are out and will be perfectly cooked when we get home. This can be in the oven or slow cooker. 

On Saturday I decided on a nice slow cooked beef osso bucco, with some kale and risotto on the side. It seems difficult, it seems like lots of components, but once the prep is done it is surprising fly easy. The risotto was the thermomix risotto, minus the mushrooms and with extra Parmesan. The kale is just chopped and gently sautéed before serving dinner. The main dish is put together with vegies from the fridge and whatever herbs you have. If you don’t have osso bucco cuts of meat, use chunks of beef ideal for slow cooking. If you aren’t into risotto, by all means make potato mash, it’ll take the same amount of time to cook as risotto. If neither are your fancy then have bread, or more green vegies. No kale? No worries! Have broccoli, peas, asparagus. The easy thing about a meal like this is you are in charge of what your meal is, based on what is seasonally available and what is in your fridge, freezer or pantry.

Slow cooking food makes you warm inside. It fills your home with beautiful smells and gives a feeling of calm and love.

I hope you are loving easy food

Osso Bucco

7-8 pieces beef shin/osso bucco (or enough beef to feed your family)

1 cup plain flour in a bag, seasoned with salt

Olive oil for pan frying

2 carrots thickly sliced

4 celery stalks thickly sliced

Half a bunch of parsley

2 onions sliced

4 sprigs of thyme

1 spring of rosemary

2 cups of water or stock (I used 2Tbps veggie stock paste and added 2 cups of water)

200gr mushrooms, halved (if small, leave them whole)

Risotto to serve (I used the thermomix risotto recipe, minus mushrooms, with double the Parmesan)

Greens to serve (I sautéed kale as it’s beautiful right now and in saeason)

Coat the beef in the flour in he bag. Shake off as much as you can

Place all the vegetables and herbs in a deep, heavy based roasting dish

Heat the oil in a frying pan and brown the meat. Once browned place on top of the vegetables in the roasting dish

Pour over the water or stock

Seal the roasting dish with aluminium foil and place in a 150degree oven for 3 hours. If you are away longer it won’t matter too much, just make sure you have enough liquid in the dish and the foil is secure

Make the risotto and kale (or whatever sides you are using)

Serve the meat and vegetables with the sides



We all have our own coleslaw receipe. It’s such a yummy and crunchy salad- if not overdone with dressing. Mine is still a mayonnaise dressing (I make my mayonnaise in the thermomix using the thermomix recipe) but it is lightened up with apple cider vinegar, the juice of a lemon and olive oil. I don’t over dress it either, as it will last longer in the fridge for lunches. Other alternative dressings are 

• simple lemon juice dressing (Take it easy, posted 15/5/2016)
• yoghurt mixed in with the lemon dressing
• just mayonnaise

At the moment there is local cabbage and kale readily available so this is such a yummy way to use them up. I’m serving this tonight with some chicken schnitzel, but it goes equally well with other forms of protein, in burgers, baked potatoes or on its own. I didn’t use any carrot in this coleslaw but it is something you could grate and add. Other things you could add to make this salad your own are

• Sultanas
• Green apple
• Parsley
• Sliced celery 

I make this salad in advance so that it is ready to bring out at dinner, this gives it enough time for the raw vegies to be cured in the dressing 

I hope you are loving easy food

KALE COLESLAW

Half head of red cabbage, sliced thinly/shredded

Half head of green cabbage, sliced thinly/shredded

5 leaves of Tuscan black kale (you could try using other types of kale, but I had this type on hand), sliced thinly/shredded

Spring onion, sliced

4 leafy parts of celery stalk, chopped

1/2cup of mayonnaise

Juice of one lemon

4Tbsps apple cider vinegar

Olive oil to taste

Salt to taste

Place all the cabbages, kale, spring onion and celery leaves in a large bowl

In a jar place the mayonnaise, lemon juice, vinegar, salt and olive oil. Put the lid on the jar and shake the dressing

Pour this over the cabbages, kale, spring onion and celery leaves

Toss together until everything is well coated with the dressing

Place in the fridge until ready to serve

Indulgences and celebrations are a wonderful part of the festive season, no matter where you are. It was no different for us in our new home. This, however, saw the family struck down one by one with a cold, or tummy bug, or both. Not a pleasant start to the year! But healing was swift and the bounce back was fast, something I attribute to this soup from Quirky Cooking (http://www.quirkycooking.com.au/2009/07/coconut-lemon-chicken-soup/). This coconut, lemon chicken soup is what I bring out when there is illness around as there is no better way to get all your bug stopping nutrients than putting them in a bowl. Now, my kids are no a fan of this soup, but they do always feel better after having it so maybe make it more fun for them by adding rice vermicelli noodles or letting them add their own choice of greens. 

The combination of turmeric, ginger, garlic, chilli and broth gives your insides a warm and loving hug. As illness can strike quite suddenly I always have my stock frozen for situations like this. There are some differences to the soup I made

• Having come out of Christmas the stock in my freezer was turkey based (I used the turkey carcass after roasting it to make this) 
• I added 400gr of thinly sliced chicken thighs in step 3 of the recipe (http://www.quirkycooking.com.au/2009/07/coconut-lemon-chicken-soup/)
• I like to use twice the amount of ginger and turmeric. Living in Bahrain fresh ginger and turmeric are easily found, which is wonderful if you like to use these ingredients (I make a tea by thinly slicing some ginger and turmeric and pouring hot water over them)
• Half of a chilli is enough and I blitz this in step 1 of the recipe
• The soup does have coriander, but for those that don’t like corriander I can assure you that it’s flavour is not strong
•  I also did not have coconut sugar so used half the amount of raw sugar 
• I thinly slice zucchini that I got from the farmers markets and put the slices in the bottom of the thermoserver and poured the soup on top and left it until everyone was ready for dinner. The zucchini was the perfect texture when ‘cooked’ this way

Sometimes we all need to give our insides some love and nurture, and this is an easy way to do so. You could make this soup and freeze it into portions to have on hand as well. Remember, your freezer can make easy food easier.

Hope you enjoy this loving, easy food.

There are farmers markets! I didn’t realise how much I loved seeing, buying and using fresh produce until I didn’t have it for 4 months and then got to go to the farmers market. In Bahrain the farmers markets run from December until April. Like other places around the world they are a place to purchase locally grown produce direct from the farmers, and Bahrain Farmers Market does not disappoint. Beautiful curly leaves of kale, bright cherry tomatoes, the deep purple of eggplant and more fresh herbs that you could imagine. I actually find it hard to express in words how wonderful it feels to see all these sights. 

After a visit to my happy place one  Saturday morning we came home ladden with fresh vegies and using them in a dish was the first thing I wanted to do. As we were going out that evening I made a pasta sauce so the family would have some healthy food in their bellies. This dish does not need to be served with pasta, it can be served with rice, crusty bread or a greeen salad. The vegetables were ones I picked up at the markets so they were in season, but you could use whatever is in season such as pumpkin or sweet potato, and cook the sauce for longer to suit. The same applies for the herbs, use whatever you have such as basil, parsley, coriander, oregano. It’s a dish that allows you the freedom of using what you have available to you.

I hope you are loving easy food

Farmers Market Stew

2 medium size eggplants, sliced

2 long green zucchinis, sliced

1 onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, sliced

Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved (use moe if you want to)

 1 tin of chopped tomatoes

Handful of basil, chopped

Handful of parsley, chopped

1 cup water

Salt to taste

Olive oil
Heat up olive oil in a heavy based saucepan or frying pan

Lightly fry onions, then add the eggplant

Once eggplant had become a little translucent add the zucchini, garlic and the cherry tomatoes. Fry together

Add the tin of tomatoes, herbs and water. Leave to simmer until the vegies are cooked through and the sauce is the thickness you desire. If you want it more saucy add more water (or stock if you are inclined)

Serve with your choice of pasta, rice bread or green salad

To make my life easier I freeze leftovers (if there are any) in containers in the freezer. Sometimes this means I end up with a couple of containers of Bolognaise, some mac and cheese sauce, Mexican chilli and curries. Similarly I put all leftover dry pasta that’s not used up from a packet in a container. It’s a good way to have things on hand should you need a quick meal for the kids, or use up all your containers of one thing to make a thrown together meal. This is what I did for lunch on a cold day before we needed to head out for the afternoon and evening.

Dear Husband and all the kids loved the Bolognaise bake. It was a combination of 2 different batches of leftover Bolognaise and then some mac and cheese sauce, stirred through whatever pasta (long and short) was in the pantry. Heat up each component, cook your pasta, stir it all together and bake it for 15 minutes in a hot oven

 I don’t have a Bolognaise recipe or mac and cheese sauce recipe to share with you today, use what you have and what you know. That’s the beauty of leftover lunch. If you’re feeling up to it serve it with a salad
Hope you’re loving easy food

Chicken dinners are a favourite in this household, and a good dinner that takes me little time and prep is sticky chicken. I use Maryland cuts for this recipe (chicken drumstick and thigh attached), but you could cut up a whole chicken or just use drumsticks, whatever you have in the fridge, freezer or have found at the shops. These are mainly Asian flavours that can be made spicier with chilli powder or sweeter with the use of more honey, the choice is yours and will depend on what you feel like and who will be eating the meal. This is a meal that just needs preparation with the marinade. You can marinade the night before or the hour before, or anywhere in between, it depends how much time you have. If you like to use your freezer you can even marinade the chicken and freeze it for another day, just defrost the chicken and cook as you would normally. 

The greens on the side are up to you, I’ve used sugar snap peas as that were readily available and looked fresh at the market that day. Broccoli is also a favourite, but in Bahrain you could go a week or so without seeing any in the supermarket or markets. You could have sliced zucchini, green beans, peas, broccolini- whatever greens look good and you feel like eating. I am quite lucky with my children as they eat most of what I give them (with the expection of eggplant for Miss B and zucchini for Miss L) and if they don’t like it they still have to eat a few mouthfuls so vegetables are never a dinner time problem. I served this with rice, but you could have an Asian coleslaw or salad with it. It’s all up to you, what you find easiest and what you love to prepare and eat. That is how our day to day food should be. Easy. Loving.

I hope you are loving easy food

STICKY CHICKEN

4 cloves garlic

5 Tbsp soy sauce

3 tsp sesame oil

2 Tbsp oyster sauce

2 Tbsp ginger power

2 Tbsp honey

2 kg chicken (I used maryland cuts)

Greens of you choice steamed

Cooked rice to serve

In your thermomix/food processor/spice blender place the garlic, soysauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, ginger powder and honey. Process until you can a marinade. You can add some water if you feel. At this point you can decide if you want to add chilli powder for heat or more honey for sweetness or more soy sauce for saltiness. As there is soy sauce, I don’t use salt

Pour your marinade over the chicken and leave in the fridge until you are ready to cook

When ready to cook turn the oven on to 180 degrees celcius. In a roasting dish lay grease paper. Arrange your chicken on top of the grease paper in the roasting dish

Place in oven and cook for 1 hour. Make sure your chicken is cooked

While the chicken is cooking prepare your rice 

Once the chicken is cooked steam your vegetables. Once steamed I drizzle some oyster sauce over them for a little flavour

Serve the chicken with rice and vegetables

Back to the fish markets I went, ready for the assault of scales and water and smells. My friend Carmela had said she bought some beautiful clams from the market and made a pasta with them. Once my Dear Husband got wind of this it was what he wanted for dinner. I had never bought clams, let alone cooked them, so thank you to Carmela who talked me through the steps. The clams in Bahrain cost less per kilo than pasta, so this may not be a recipe easy for my friends back home to make but maybe change the clams for mussels which are more readily available and cheaper in Perth.

This dish has very few steps and is made with very simple ingredients. It is easy to put together and everyone at dinner loved it. Thank you Carmela for sharing this recipe from your home. You can follow her recipes on http://www.memoriediunacuocaperbene.com

I hope you loving easy food

CARMELA’S CLAMS

2kg clams

450gr pasta, normally I suggest you use whatever you have but for this I do think spaghetti or long pasta is the way to go, not too thick though

2 cloves garlic, bruised with the back of a knife

Good quality extra virgin olive oil

1 cup white wine 

Handful chopped parsley
Get a pot of boiling water to a rapid boil and cook your pasta. You can begin the next step once the pasta is cooked or do the next step and monitor your pasta

Get a saucepan large enough to fit all you clams. Place enough olive oil in the saucepan to cover the base of it, then add the garlic cloves. Heat the oil until the garlic cloves sizzle. Make sure not to burn the garlic

Once the garlic cloves are sizzling add you cup of white wine

Once the wine is simmering put all your clams in the saucepan and put a lid on top. Like mussels the clams are ready when they have opened

Toss the cooked pasta through with the clams and then sprinkle with the fresh chopped parsley. You may notice that I haven’t added salt. The clams when they open will released juices that are quite salty. Have salt at the ready but we didn’t feel the need to add any

Serve immediately